Duration Percent Complete in Primavera P6 – the Missing Guide

There are many different methods for calculation of actual progress in Primavera P6. These methods involve using many fields and settings, including:

Duration % Complete

Units % Complete

Physical % Complete

Percent Complete Type

Activity % Complete

Performance % Complete

Earned Value settings of the WBS Elements

I will explain Duration % Complete in this article. Other fields and settings will be explained in future articles and we will finally have a complete picture of the whole actual progressing system in Primavera P6.

Primavera P6’s 3 Types of Activity Percent Complete

Each activity has three percent complete fields that are calculated all the time:

Duration % Complete

Units % Complete

Physical % Complete

Only one of these values will be selected by the user as the activity’s progress, even though all of them are calculated all the time. I will explain how to choose the appropriate activity percent complete in future articles.

Duration % Complete Calculations

The most common problem with Duration % Complete is that Primavera P6 uses a counterintuitive formula. You may expect it to be something like Microsoft Project’s formula:

This formula uses Original Duration, which may be different from the current duration. We will check this on the following sample.

Sample: We have an activity with original duration of 20 days. 15 days have passed and we estimate it to finish in 18 days (yes, it’s much longer than we expected initially). The Original Duration does not change automatically after activity’s start.

Original Duration: 20d
Actual Duration: 15d
Remaining Duration: 18d

[Duration % Complete] = (20-18)/20 = 10%

Intuitive or MSP-like Duration % Complete = 15/(15+18) = 45.45%

The following figure shows the initial state of this sample activity (named A1):

Let’s say that the activity has started in May 8th. We’ll check the Started checkbox and enter the actual start date in its date box.

Learn Primavera P6 Duration Percent Complete

Suppose that it’s currently May 27th; we will reschedule the plan for this data date.

The Actual Duration is automatically calculated based on Actual Start Date and the Data Date, as follows:

Now we can enter the remaining duration. In this example, we estimate that A1 requires 18 more days to be completed. We’ll enter 18d in remaining duration field. By entering a remaining duration, Duration % Complete will be calculated automatically.

In this case, Duration % Complete is calculated as 10%.

We could have entered the Duration % Complete instead of the Remaining Duration and P6 would have calculated Remaining Duration automatically .
Now, take a look at the Gantt chart.

When you look at the Gantt chart, you see that about half of the current duration is actualized and you may expect a Duration % Complete of around 50%. The exact number of the intuitive formula is 45.45% in this example, which is not equal to our Duration % Complete.

Changing the Original Duration

Primavera P6 uses the following equation for Original Duration is used when an activity is not yet started:

[Original Duration] = [Early Finish] – [Early Start]

However, after the activity has started, Original Duration will not be automatically calculated by Early Start and Early Finish, and you can change it manually. The At Completion Duration represents our current duration, calculated as:

[At Completion Duration] = [Actual Duration] + [Remaining Duration]

In our example, the At Completion Duration is calculated to be 33d. We will enter the same value for the Original Duration field and this would be the result:

The activity’s schedule is not changed, but Duration % Complete is recalculated based on the new Original Duration; and yes, it’s the intuitive value that we calculated before.
When Original Duration is equal to the At Completion Duration, the Duration % Complete will have the intuitive value. The following equations show how the P6 formula would become the intuitive formula, when the Original Duration is equal to the At Completion Duration:

= [Actual Duration] / ( [Actual Duration] + [Remaining Duration] )
* this equation is based on the assumption that Original Duration is equal to the At Completion Duration.

If you would like to have the intuitive Duration % Complete (for any reason), you can create a global change to set the Original Durations of in-progress activities. The following figure shows the appropriate global change setup.

This global change checks each activity’s status; if it’s “In Progress”, then the At Completion Duration would be copied to the Original Duration. We will then have the intuitive Duration % Completes for all activities.

Duration % Complete for WBS Elements

The previous explanation was focused on Duration % Complete for Activities. Duration % Complete is also calculated for WBS Elements, but I strongly recommend you not to use Duration % Complete to track a WBS Element’s progress. Thus I have not included an explanation of the calculations here.

You should always think of Duration % Complete as an intermediate field and use Performance % Complete to track activities and WBS Element’s actual progresses.

I will explain the calculation and usage of Performance % Complete in a future tutorial.

Summary

The most common problem in this area is that Primavera P6 does not use the intuitive formula for Duration % Complete which confuses some planners and project managers. We explained the Primavera P6 calculations and the intuitive formula side by side, to show the differences and create a better understanding of the P6 method. Finally, if you absolutely need to use the intuitive formula, try the Global Change described above.

Remember, Duration % Complete does not provide a final result; it is used in a system which provides the actual progress. You should use Performance % Complete to read the actual progresses. We’ll cover that in an upcoming tutorial soon.

About Nader Khorrami Rad

Nader Khorrami Rad is a project planning and control expert with 12 years of experience in different industries and certified as PMP (Project Management Professional), CSM (Certified ScrumMaster) and PSM I (Professional ScrumMaster). He is the author of 38 books in Persian and 2 ebooks in English. Connect with him by visiting his website or on Twitter @KhorramiRad.

Your Comments
The above mention information is really very useful . Is it possible to give information for physical percnt complete method also and also about cost loading in detail considering i am very new in planning job
Thanks and Regards
s.a.mallick

Dear Mr.Nader,
I can’t say what i feel reading your article. It’s very helpful & is mentioned so simply. I like that. I am waiting for Performance % Complete article. Plannertuts is one of the best websites I seen which publishes great helpful article. I waiting for more article that help me to grow.

I have problem in P6 that the performance % is equal zero , even the activity percentage changed with values , what could be the cause , even I reviewed the admin prefrences & check activity % with the performance % technique.mments

Nader… we have noticed that there are times when ‘actual duration’ + ‘remaining duration’ do not equal at ‘complete duration’. It appears that this can be caused when a predecessor’s early finish date is overridden with actual start and finish dates. Comments?

Why does P6 calculate Duration % Complete with the formula mentioned above? If you change your original duration, to match your at complete duration, how will you ever get P6 to give you an SPI value other than 1.00?

Hi,
In our project progress, my project finish date is passing the required finish date. Is there any way that I can assign a constraint and remaining activity durations get smaller to hit the target finish date? For example, my project finishes on 14-Jan-2014, but I want to finish it on 28-Nov-2014. What should I set my activity type and duration type and percent complete type for Primavera to auto shorten the remaining durations but keeping the same budgeted labor units. I sincerely appreciate any help.

How can I say what you have accomplished in this articles…This is the greast single challenge never seen before in PM/CM area. I am certain that your reputation and contribution will be long remembered and will impact thousands of Primavera admirers, leading you to great sucess in your profession.

performance percentage is linked with physical percentage so you have to put it manually. 100 percent means your activity is actually finished but as planned its not finished. Reason is that an activity might have actually started earlier than planned date

Your tutorials are really useful , but are you able to answer a problem I have.
I’m using P6 r8.0. My Activities are DURATION PC and FIXED DURATION / UNITS. They are being planned with EXPECTED FINISH and CONSTRAINT dates. Whilst I understand that the schedule will update the REMAINING DURATION (using EXPECTED DATE – DATA DATE) … why would the Schedule process set my PLANNED (Original) DURATION and UNITS to ZERO?

Aamer,
For Duration Type, stick to Fixed Duration & Units/Time – only change this if you’re trying to have P6 calculate durations or number of resources (in very special circumstances – like a change request or scenario).
Most industries use Physical % Complete. Units is never used, and Duration is the default but not ideal – stick to Physical. I teach both of these subjects in great detail on PlannerTuts Premium – our online training portal.
Michael

Duration % complete is a lazy man’s way progressing activities of a programme. NEVER to be used in a complex and multiple trades environments. Monitoring duration is does not help at all. My advice is to use Physical % complete. Project performanace is judged by physical work done NOT duration taken.

Concerning the financial project performance:
In many projects the clocked manhours are in a different software system , and primavera calculates the earned value hours. The calculation of the earned value is done by % complete times 1% of the baseline budget.
This means that it does not matter what kind of % kpl you use.

Physical % complete has also problems of its own ,regarding the end date of a project.

As % complete and the rest duration are not connected , an activity of for instance 10 days can be given 90% complete with a rest duration of 8 days.This implicates that a project with a duration of for instance 12 months can be reported 80% complete with a rest duration of 10 months. Nice when there is a fixed end date of a project and you report to the management that they are 80% complete.

Anyway, working with a PDM network, the time schedule is driving by duration and not by manhours.